


Martins childhood

by badgerBoyMay



Series: Reign of the resurrected dragon emperor [5]
Category: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Childhood, F/M, Martin Septim Lives, Origin Story, Past Lives, Sibling Love, Siblings, Storytelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 01:47:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28502460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badgerBoyMay/pseuds/badgerBoyMay
Summary: Martin tells Ariana about his childhood and life until they met in Kvatch. They also go find Martins brother.
Relationships: Female Hero of Kvatch | Champion of Cyrodiil/Martin Septim, Hero of Kvatch | Champion of Cyrodiil/Martin Septim
Series: Reign of the resurrected dragon emperor [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2057199
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Martins childhood

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: The Characters are owned by bethesda and I don't make any money with this piece!!!

"Come on, teeeeell me!", she demanded. The emperor laughed, "you will never leave me alone with that until I tell you everything right?", he asked, a smile on his face.

"Of course not, I can be stubborn.", Ariana grinned. Martin shook his head, "you are unbelievable, my love."

"And you want to marry me, sucks to be you.", she countered.

"Marrying you will still be one of my best achievements. But fine I'll tell you. You've won.", he said.

"Yess!"

"Once upon a time there was a little boy called Martin, living on a farm in Colovia with his father and his brother Minilius, I called him Lius for short. Anyway, I'll tell you about it."

~~~~ years ago, at the farm ~~~~

Martin was playing tag with his older brother. Lius was 12, Martin 10 at the time.

"You won't get me, Marty!"

"I will!", the younger laughed.

"Boys! Come on inside, dinner's ready!", their father called out.

The two boys walked back to the house and sat down on the small table. Then they ate together.

"So tell me, how was school today?", the father asked.

"It was okay.", Lius answered with a shrug. "What about you, Martin?"

The little boy looked up, "It was great.", he said. Martin had always been more eager to learn writing and reading. Lius just didn't care for that really. He just wanted to help on the farm. Martin however wasn't a farmer at all. He wanted to learn things. The boy was especially drawn to the local mages. He wanted to join the mages guild when he would be old enough.

Some years later, Martin was finally the right age to join them. His father had other plans tho. They had a big argument about it.

"Martin, why do you want to waste your time with this stuff? Stay here and learn some real craft."

"I am not a farmer, father!", Martin yelled. It was moments like this when his father remembered who  _ "his"  _ boy really was. There was the rage of a dragon inside his eyes. Martin's face got desperate, "please father, all I want is to learn the ways of using magic."

The farmer sighed but nodded, "fine, my boy, if that is what you really want then go."

Martin hadn't looked happier in all his life.

~~~

"And then I joined the mages guild at the age of 15.", he told Ariana.

"Oh, 15? Cute.", she grinned, then said: "You never told me you had a brother, what happened to him?"

Martin shrugged, "after I joined the guild we didn't see each other often. When I turned to daedric magic we kinda lost contact. Haven't seen him since our father died."

"That's sad.. you two seemed so close when you were kids."

"We were.", Martin nodded, "I always loved him. Still love him, he's my brother after all- well half brother I suppose.."

"He  _ is  _ your brother.", Ariana said.

Martin smiled at that.

"You should try to find him."

"I don't know, Ari. We haven't talked in years. It must have been at least 15 years that I have seen him last. Also we had some… disagreements at the time about me being in a daedric cult."

"Well then you should find him even more. Talk to him, explain yourself maybe? Do you think he knows that you are  _ you?" _

"What do you mean? That I'm the emperor now?"

She nodded.

"I dunno. Maybe he does. Maybe father told him about me at some point. I wasn't really nice to them when I was with the cult.. I regret many things I did in the past."

Ariana kissed him on the cheek, "It's okay. You changed and you know better now. Will you continue the story?", she asked.

He chuckled, "nosy aren't we? But as you wish."

~~~

Martin loved reading about new spells and learning about the old ways. He loved the first months in the guild, making new friends, learning something new every day.

But he grew impatient with the way the guild told him to do things after a while. Martin and his friends were having a night out at the tavern when they met a traveller. He claimed to be a member of the cult of Sanguine and told them about what they could do if they'd join too. It didn't take them long to quit the guild and join the cult.

~~~

"So that's how you got in contact with the daedra? You were enlisted?", she suppressed a laugh. "Kinda. Really one of the worst decisions of my life."

"It sounds really stupid to me tho. I mean- joining a cult just because you're angry at some mages."

"I was young, hungry for forbidden wisdom and an idiot.", Martin said.

"But it was an important step on your way to become the man you are now I guess."

"Indeed.", he nodded.

They were silent for a moment.

Martin then looked at her with hurt in his eyes, "Sorry Ariana but I rather like to skip that topic. All you need to know is that I lost important people. Friends, family, loved ones. Daedric powers aren't as great as they might look to you.", he said. She caressed his hair, "It's okay you really don't have to talk about things that make you uncomfortable. Just know that I don't judge you for anything you did. I love you, no matter what.", she smiled.

He kissed her knuckles, "my sweet sweet hero. I love you too."

"So, how did you become a priest?"

"Oh that is a whole other story, it happened like this:"

~~~

Martin had walked all day when he entered through the gates of the city of Kvatch. He really didn't know what he should do tho. Maybe he'd just ask around if anyone had work for him to do. All he knew was some magic and a bit of farmwork. He wasn't good at the later tho. Martin sat down on the ground for a moment, leaned at one of the small walls. He hadn't eaten something propper in days but what should he do about it without any septims in his pocket. When he was with the cult, Martin had always got something to eat and drink and afterwards some nice company in bed.

The young man shook his head, he didn't want to think of them. After all, the cult had destroyed his life. Sanguine's worship had taken everything away from him. 

Just when his stomach growled again, a man approached him. A priest from the chapel in town.

"You're looking kind of lost, young man.", the priest smiled.

Martin looked up, "maybe I am. I suppose I lost my way."

"What is your name?", the priest asked.

"Martin", he told him.

"Well Martin, Akatosh helps everyone who is in need of it. Come with me. You seem quite hungry.", he held out his hand. Martin took it. "I can't pay for anything..", he told the priest but the man only gave him a warm laugh. "You don't have to, son."

~~~

"I stayed with the priests of Akatosh from that day on. They saved me. Without brother Marcus I would have probably died a lot sooner.", he paused. Then continued: "They gave me a home and sort of a family again. I helped with the work in the chapel until brother Marcus asked me if I wouldn't like to become a priest myself. I thought: why not? I could help the townspeople like that and also stay with the guys I called my family at that point. I agreed to become a priest and well, as you know, I did manage to do so. I took over the chapel from brother Marcus when he retired a few years before the oblivion crisis began.", Martin told her. Ariana looked at him.

"I'm glad they were able to help you."

"So am I, Ariana, so am I.", he smiled.

The Altmer woman stretched a little bit, "I still think you should try to find your brother. I bet he misses you as well. Who knows, maybe you are an uncle already.", she grinned.

Martin looked at the opposite wall while thinking.

"Well, it won't hurt I suppose. Either we will start speaking to each other again or he will tell me to fuck off.", the former priest shrugged.

"I believe he'll not tell you that. It will be fine, love.", she smiled.

They spent the next days finding out what happened to Martin's brother and eventually found out that he built himself a farm near Skingrad. The two of them then went to Ocato to talk to him about it.

"High chancellor? May we have a word with you?", Martin asked in his usual politeness.

Ocato looked up from his papers, "of course, your majesty. What can I help you with?", he answered.

"I just wanted to inform you that Ariana and I will be away for a week. We need to travel to Skingrad."

"May I ask why, Sire?", the high elf asked him. Martin seemed to think of a good explanation until Ariana said: "The emperor has some business in Skingrad with Count Hassildor.", she said.

"What kind of business?", Ocato seemed quite suspicious.

"High chancellor, look at it that way: the people of the Skingrad county will sure be glad to see their emperor with all these riots and unhappiness going around. It will only be good if Martin shows up there.", Ariana said.

The high chancellor looked at both of them, then sighed.

"Well, if you think you have to do whatever you two are up to, do it. I'm sure I couldn't stop you anyway. Please take at least three of the blades with you.", he paused and looked at Ariana with a small smile, "you aren't a good influence for him, princess.", Ocato then joked.

Ariana only grinned, "I know. But to be honest, Martin isn't as innocent as he seems."

Martin gave her a painful glance.

"As long as you bring him back here without any harm.", Ocato replied and turned back at his writing.

A few days later Ariana, Martin, Baurus, Caroline and Belisarius made their way to Skingrad. The Blades had been informed of the plan and would gladly help with it. Caroline had immediately loved the idea, Belisarius had only shrugged at it but agreed to help and Baurus was always happy to help them. Ariana didn't want to appear with four blades on her future brother-in-law's doorstep, so they settled on two of them staying in Skingrad while one would stay outside the farm for any emergencies.

Baurus, as the oldest blade, decided to stay with the emperor pair.

"Caro, Arius, you two will proceed to Skingrad. See if you can get us a good place to stay for the night. You know what it has to be like. We need to make sure nothing can happen to Martin in there. I will accompany them to the farm. We will meet in Skingrad in the evening.", Baurus said.

The other blades nodded, "Alright."

Ariana looked at Martin while they came closer to the farm. "You alright?"

He nodded, "I'm fine, Ari. At least I think I am..", he said, sounding unsure.

Ariana took his hand and pressed it. "I'm there if you need me.", she replied.

"I'm glad.", the older one smiled.

They reached the house and Baurus got off his horse first. "I'll wait here."

Ariana just nodded and took the lead. She had bought her sword along. The Altmer wanted to be at least able to propper protect Martin if something happened.

They stopped in front of the door.

"You're ready?", Ariana looked at him.

Martin nodded and knocked.

They waited a few moments until a woman opened the door.

She looked at them for a second before asking: "Oh Hello, can I help you?"

"Uhm, I hope you can. We're searching for Minilius.", Martin said.

"May I ask what you want from my husband?", she replied, looking uneasy. Martin had noticed her kinda scared expression. "Oh please we came in peace, I'm terribly sorry, we haven't introduced ourselves. That's Ariana, my fiance and I'm Martin-"

The woman cut him off with a joyful expression, "wait a second! Martin? Are you Lius' brother Martin?", she asked. The emperor nodded with a shy smile. "Yeah, that's me."

"Please come in you two! He'll be so happy to see you. Oh by the way, I am Emaralda but please call me Ema."

They followed her inside.

Ema then turned to a little boy, sitting at the fireplace. "Matty go get your father please. Tell him we have guests.", she smiled. The boy nodded and ran outside.

"Your son?", Ariana asked.

Ema nodded, proud. "Yes, Matty is seven now. A great boy."

Martin smiled, "He reminds me of our father a lot."

Ema chuckled, "Lius always says that too."

They talked some more until Minilius and Matty returned. Martin held his breath for a second when his brother walked in. He hadn't changed much. They were both older now tho.

"So who do we have her-" Lius wanted to ask his wife but stopped when he saw his long lost brother.

They watched each other silently for a few seconds until they both rushed into a tight hug.

"Martin", the older one whispered.

"Hey Lius.", Martin whispered back.

"Gods, I missed you.", Lius then said.

Martin drew back a little, "I'm so sorry for everything that happened. I was unfair toward you and father all these years back then. I wish I could change that now, make it right somehow.", Martin wiped away a few tears.

Lius only smiled at him through happy tears, "We both said nasty things to each other. I regret every word of that. We were just so worried about you back then, Martin. Father didn't want you to hurt yourself. He was so happy when we heard about you becoming a priest in Kvatch. Just know, he was proud of you before he died. So was I."

"I don't deserve that, you know.", Martin said.

"Of course you do! You are my brother. You always will be  _ my brother _ . I don't care about anyone telling me otherwise."

"So you.. know?", Martin wanted to know.

"What? That you are my  _ half _ brother? Yes. Father told me on his deathbed that you were special. He told me that your biological father was a noble, he didn't tell me that you'd be the freaking emperor tho. I didn't know that you are from the royal family."

Martin laughed, "Believe me, I didn't know that as well. Also that wasn't really planned."

Lius then looked at Ariana. "And who is the lady?", he asked.

"That's Ariana, the champion of Cyrodiil and my fiance.", Martin said, proud, looking at Ariana too.

She was laughing with Ema about something.

"Oh so she's the hero that saved us all?", Lius asked.

"Exactly, she is the one who closed all the oblivion gates and recovered the amulet of kings to defeat Mehrunes Dagon."

"But you are the one who really saved us, love." Ariana replied to that.

Martin smiled a little, "let's say we both did that."

Ema stood up and came over to them after asking Ariana if she wanted something to drink. She looked at Martin. "Would you also like something to drink, your majesty?"

Martin flinched, "that would be very kind, but please- never call me  _ your majesty  _ again. You're family and my name is  _ Martin.",  _ he said with a kind smile. Ema nodded, "of course, sorry."

"It's fine Ema.", he answered.

They sat down, talking about everything that had happened in the 15 years that they haven't seen each other.

At some point Ariana asked: "Will you three come to our wedding? We'd love to have you."

Ema looked at her husband, "I think that's a great idea. Are we able to make it?"

"I'm sure we can manage somehow.", he smiled.

"Great!", Ariana answered and Martin nodded.

Matty and the two women went outside to show the Altmer the garden when the two brothers stood next to each other, watching them.

"Hey Lius?"

The older one turned to Martin, "yes?"

"You know as well as I do that we were only able to go to school because the emperor took care of that. I know that you'll probably can't afford to send Matty to school so- please let me help. I wanna pay for it. I can pay for it. He's my nephew after all."

Lius seemed a bit unsure.

"I mean- yeah when he doesn't want to be a farmer he needs to go to school. You know that I could never take any money from you-"

"Lius please. Let me do that for you three. As I know you, you wouldn't take the offer to move to the imperial city, but if you ever need any help- just tell me, okay? I'd like to stay in contact this time.", he smiled.

"Sure we'll stay in contact, little brother. And thank you, I'll tell you if anything is wrong. I have to talk about school for Matty with my wife first tho.", he explained. Martin nodded, "of course, I can understand that."

They watched the others for a while until Lius asked: "And are you happy?"

Martin knew exactly what he meant to say so he nodded, "Yes. Well, being the emperor is something I don't really need but it's just the way it is I suppose. Most important is  _ she.  _ I couldn't do it without Ariana."

"You love her a lot, hm?", the older one grinned.

Martin smiled, "She's the love of my life. I would be dead without her. Quite literal, she saved us back in Kvatch."

Lius' face got serious, "You've been gone for five years. Some said you died, some said you just vanished, what did really happen?"

Martin cleared his throat, "yeah well- I wasn't really dead but I also wasn't alive. It's hard to explain. I gave myself to act as an avatar of Akatosh to seal the borders between Nirn and Oblivion.", he said.

Lius watched him with a raised brow. "So you basically died?"

"I died.", Martin agreed to end the topic.

"Can you please not die again?", Lius asked him.

"I'll try, Lius.", Martin replied.

"Thanks brother."

They agreed to write eachother often when they left. Martin and Ariana met Baurus on the way to Skingrad, where they joined the other blades again. Caroline and Belisarius had found a nice quiet inn where they could stay without many people noticing. Ariana pulled down the cap of her cloak a bit more. She didn't want to get into a crowd of people just now. "Martin? Can we just go to bed?", Ariana asked him.

The imperial nodded, "Sure, dear. Let's get some sleep."

The emperor turned at his blades, "we'll go to bed. Maybe some sleep is just what we need after the long journey."

"Alright, Sire. I'll do the first watch. Belisarius can do the second.", Baurus said. Martin just nodded and followed the Altmer to their room.

A few minutes later, Ariana asked: "Look how simple this room is compared to your normal chambers in the palace."

"Yes, isn't that great?", Martin grinned, honestly happy about it.

"I dunno, is it?"

"Yes. I'm happy to have something normal for once. But let's focus back on you. You don't seem so tired, why did you want to go to the room, are you okay?", he asked.

"I really just wanted to have some quiet minutes with you, Marty."

"Well you have now."

"True." she smiled and sat down on the bed. Martin sat down next to her.

"Hey Ari? Thank you."

"For?", she asked.

"That you made me do this. Looking for my brother and that I could get out of the imperial city for once."

"My pleasure I guess.", she kissed him on the cheek. Martin put his arm around her.

"So all in all a good day.", the Altmer said.

"Indeed", the former priest smiled.

  
  



End file.
